Public space appropriation and neighborhood habitability Urban transformations for social cohesion and sustainability

Abstract

Public space appropriation and transformation influence the everyday conditions of inhabiting, particularly in areas adjacent to housing, where practices of use, permanence, interaction, and adaptation converge. Although habitability, social cohesion, and sustainability have been widely addressed in urban studies, there remains a need to further examine the relationships between physical-spatial conditions and everyday practices at the immediate scale of residential environments. This article aims to analyze the relationship between practices of public space appropriation and the production of habitability conditions at the neighborhood scale, using the San Pablo Xalpa Housing Unit in Mexico City as an empirical case. A predominantly qualitative mixed-methods approach was employed, based on non-participant observation, documentary analysis, and visual records, complemented by the descriptive systematization of indicators identified across the units of observation. The results show that appropriation practices produce different forms of use, adaptation, and transformation of common spaces, which may expand opportunities for permanence, interaction, and shared use while also generating access restrictions, spatial discontinuities, and tensions between individual and collective uses. Based on these findings, neighborhood habitability is proposed as an analytical category at the meso scale that articulates physical-spatial configuration, appropriation, and social practices in the immediate residential environment.